Brussels, 21/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - The Cypriot presidency of the EU Council of Ministers has said that it will not be putting forward any figures on the multiannual financial framework (MFF) 2014-2020 before end October. It remains optimistic about the chances of bringing EU leaders to a compromise on 23 November on this highly sensitive dossier. In the meantime, the General Affairs Council (GAC) will, on Monday 24 September from 10.00am, discuss the latest version of the negotiating box on the next MFF. The negotiating box comprises a number of new elements, such as the plan to reduce the amounts initially proposed by the European Commission under all headings; suppression of the “reverse safety net” (ceiling of what a country or region can receive) in cohesion policy; and the degressive approach to agricultural subsidies. The Council will examine an annotated draft agenda for the October meeting of the European Council and will proceed to an exchange of views on lessons to be learnt from implementation of the European Semester budgetary process.
The latest recasting of the negotiating box was presented to COREPER on Thursday 20 September. Some so-called “net contributor” countries, like Lithuania and the Czech Republic, welcomed the Cypriot Presidency's intention to review downward the total budget initially proposed by the Commission for 2014-2020. Some of the so-called “friends of cohesion” countries (Poland, Greece, etc.) felt, on the other hand, that this reduction was not the right course to take seeing that funding is for growth and jobs.
Some net contributors protested against the disappearance of the reverse safety net (cohesion policy), while others (like Poland) are in favour of keeping it in place. On the subject of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), France, Belgium and Spain in particular protested against the plan to reduce direct subsidies (“degressivity”) to farmers from 2015, although the idea was hailed by the United Kingdom and Sweden. The cohesion countries were more mitigated in their opinions on this. They agree that CAP aid should be reduced if the countries that receive below the EU average are exempted from the reduction. Net contributors welcomed the fact that the RAL (French: reste à liquider = commitments unspent) is part of the negotiating box, while others consider that this must be treated as part of the annual budget procedure. Some countries, like France, call for progress to be made on own resources of the EU budget. The Benelux countries, and also Lithuania, Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria, are to present a document aimed at defending compensation for the cost of collection of 25% of traditional own resources.
The GAC is to examine a draft agenda for the European Council on 18 and 19 October: economic policy: implementation of the Compact for Jobs and Growth, interim report on the future of economic and monetary union, and discussion on banking supervision and banking union; strategic partners: discussion on the EU's relations with its strategic partners; and other issues, such as foreign policy issues (in light of international events). It will also analyse the lessons learned from the 2012 European Semester monitoring exercise, and possible improvements for 2013.
Furthermore, the Commission will present a report on the implementation of the national Roma strategies, and its proposal on European political parties. (LC/transl.jl)